European competitiveness was made the top priority of the Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the EU in 2024, thus the meetings of the EU Competitiveness Council have carried special, added significance to them. The last of these meetings took place last week under the Hungarian Presidency, where five conclusions were adopted by the Member States.

A recent AFP articles titled ‘Orban’s soft power shines as Hungary hosts Israeli match’ apparently praised the Hungarian leadership for welcoming many Israeli football teams in the midst of the ongoing Hamas–Israel war. However, as expected, the piece also insinuates that the Hungarian government at times ‘veers into’ antisemitism, citing as an example the anti-Soros billboard campaign of 2017.

Despite insisting for months that he would not, US President Joe Biden issued a pardon to his son Hunter Biden on Sunday, 1 December. Hunter Biden was convicted on three felony counts of making false statements on a federal firearm purchase form and three felony counts of tax evasion earlier this year. However, peculiarly, his pardon covers any other potential crimes he may have committed in the last decade as wel.

The new Budapest-based airline Hungary Airlines has acquired 100 aircraft from the American manufacturer Boeing and is reportedly planning to make its first cargo flight from Budapest, Hungary to Hong Kong, China this month. It is unclear for now whether or not the company will expand to passenger flights as well.

Rejecting Balázs Orbán’s PhD thesis based on his political affiliation is akin to barring a qualified athlete from competing in the Olympics solely because of their worldview.

President Donald Trump became the second President in US history to be elected to a second, non-consecutive term after Grover Cleveland. He defeated Vice President Kamala Harris from the Democratic Party with a projected 312 electoral votes. He is also on track to win the popular vote, the first Republican to do so in a presidential election since George W Bush in 2004.

Real estate developer and reality TV show star Donald Trump was given very little chance by mainstream journalists and pollsters in 2016. However, by focusing on illegal immigration and standing up against the new ‘woke’ PC activists at the time, he managed to pull off one of the greatest upset victories in a presidential election in American history.

The European Commission’s aviation safety agency EASA’s conference was hosted in Budapest, Hungary under the Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The emphasis was placed on the essential impact of human factors in ensuring safe operations at the event; as well as the aviation industry’s long-term challenges, such as the use of artificial intelligence (AI).

Democrat Mayor Matt Tuerk of Allentown, Pennsylvania tried to remove road closures in the city on the morning of the Trump rally despite them being announced as approved by the city the day before. The video of a Trump campaign staffer berating the Mayor went viral on social media. Eventually, the local police sided with the Trump campaign, and the event went down swimmingly.

The city, county, and military leadership got together in Székesfehérvár, Hungary to pay their respects to the fallen men and women of the Hungarian Defence Forces on All Saints’ Day, 1 November. Multiple wreath-laying ceremonies took place in different locations across the city on this solemn day.

The atrium of the Justus Lipsius building in Brussels, Belgium, the old headquarters of the Council, is hosting an exhibition of great Hungarian inventions in honour of the Hungarian presidency. The items on display include Ányos Jedlik’s dynamo, Dávid Schwarz’s airship, and, of course, Ernő Rubik’s Rubik’s Cube.

Chief Operating Officer for the Hungarian oil company MOL György Bacsa recently spoke to the Financial Times about Western powers trying to pressure Hungary into giving up Russian oil imports, while they themselves continue to buy refined oil from Türkiye and India, countries that are still refining Russian crude oil, essentially ‘laundering’ the energy import.

MEPs of the newly founded right-wing populist Patriots for Europe political group in the European Parliament were invited to President Donald Trump’s highly anticipated rally at Madison Square Garden in new York City, New York. The Patriots in attendance shared a video on their X page, talking about their experience at the grandiose event.

While President George W Bush enjoyed a record-high 90 per cent approval rating in the wake of the tragic 9/11 attack in 2001, his support dropped to just 25 per cent by October 2008. This was due to the eventual unpopularity of the Iraq war, but mostly, due to the 2008 financial crisis. Illinois Senator Barack Obama narrowly defeated former First Lady Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary, then handily won the 2008 election to become the first black President in US history.

For the first time since early August, President Donald Trump is leading the national polling aggregate by RealClearPolitics over Vice President Kamala Harris. His current lead is just 0.2 points. However, he was underestimated by pollsters in the popular vote in both cycles he ran, in 2016 and 2020 as well.

The Asia-Oceania Working Group (COASI) had an informal meeting in Budapest, Hungary earlier this month, hosted by the Hungarian EU Presidency. At the event, experts discussed such pressing issues as the current political and economic trade collaboration between the European Union and the countries in the Asia-Pacific area, the Indian general election in June of this year, and more.

Dr Jordan B Peterson has recently had a public discussion with evolutionary biologist Dr Richard Dawkins, one of the most prominent figures of the popular atheist movement of the early 2000s. The two philosophers touched on subjects such as Jesus Christ’s birth of a virgin mother and his resurrection, the philosophical foundation for the modern scientific enterprise, and many more intriguing questions.

Tamás Deutsch, the leader of Fidesz’s European Parliament delegation, has accused the MEPs of the largest Hungarian opposition party TISZA of backing the EU’s migrant quotas and opposing the payment of the €1 billion Hungary had requested from Brussels as reimbursements for protecting the Union’s external borders.

Newly elected Budapest District XII Mayor Gergely Kovács has vowed to remove the local Turul monument, which is dedicated to the fallen soldiers of World War II, due to its connection to fascism. However, Minister of Construction and Transportation János Lázár prevented him from doing so by placing the statue under historic monument protection.

The world premiere of the ten-part Rise of the Raven (Hunyadi) TV series was held at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès in Cannes, France at MIPCOM, one of the most important annual events for the film, television and streaming industry. The sold-out screening was attended by the series’ creators as well as Hungarian and international stars and producers.

Coincidentally, on the Hungarian national holiday of 23 October, the English club Liverpool featuring Dominik Szobszlai faced off against the German side RB Leipzig with Péter Gulácsi and Willi Orbán in their starting line-up in the UEFA Champions League. Liverpool won the game 1–0. This was the first time both sides in a UCL game featured Hungarian internationals since December 2006.

While many news outlets had already called the crucial swing state of Florida for Vice President Al Gore on election night 2000, it was eventually Texas Governor George W Bush who got those 25 electoral votes. After two recounts, the second stopped partway through by the Supreme Court, the final tally had Bush up over Gore by just 537 (!) votes in the state, getting him the presidency.

Researcher at the Hungarian Institute of International Affairs Julianna Ármás has told Magyar Nemzet that the European Union’s expansion into the Western Balkans is a ‘top priority’ of the Hungarian EU presidency, adding that while ‘the EU has an interest in the accession of the six Western Balkan countries,’ the issue has taken a backseat since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

After partnering with the company VANNET Telekommunikációs Ltd based in Pécs, Hungary, our country became the 40th nation in the world to have Starlink’s satellite internet service available to its citizens. Starlink is owned by SpaceX, which, in turn, is owned by Trump supporter Elon Musk, the richest person on Earth.

The Brazil-based polling firm AtlasIntel, which got the popular vote margins right by 0.3 points in the last two election cycles in the United States, has released its latest national vote prediction for the 2024 US presidential election. It shows President Donald Trump leading Vice President Kamala Harris by 2.7 points, a slight shift towards Harris since their last release in mid-September.

Minister of Justice Bence Tuzson of Hungary was at a commemoration ceremony to mark the 221st anniversary of the birth of 19th-century Hungarian statesman Ferenc Deák in Kehidakustány, Hungary on Friday. Deák, one of the chief architects behind the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, ‘set an example for those who are active in public life,’ Minister Tuzson stated at the event.

The Budapest Business Journal sat down with the two vice presidents of the National Research, Development and Innovation Office (NKIFH), Zsuzsa Szabados and László Lengyel. They outlined what their organization is doing to help Hungarian companies with innovation and compete better on the international market, thus raising Hungary’s national competitiveness.

According to on-site reporting by Euronews.com, the abandoned farm house that used to be occupied by migrants near Horgos (Horgoš), Serbia, just 1.5 miles from the Hungarian border, has been completely cleared by local law enforcement. A local resident recalled that there had been an increase in crime in the area while the migrants were present.

128 Orthodox Jewish men were not allowed to board their connecting flight to Budapest, Hungary in Frankfurt, Germany by the German commercial airline Lufthansa in May 2022. Only some of these passengers disregarded COVID-19 rules at the time, but they were all penalized as a group. For this incident, Lufthansa has agreed to pay $4 million in penalties.

A recent The Wall Street Journal’s editorial argues that UNIFIL, the United Nations’ peacekeeping mission in operation since 1978, has been allowing Hezbollah to stockpile weapons and build up infrastructure in southern Lebanon, the very place UNIFIL is supposed to keep safe from terror groups.